catching up and ending 2019

Well, I still am not posting on a regular basis, so once again this is a catch up post.

I have some photos to share

I was out checking the chickens one of the last days of November and I managed to catch this sunset.

and then a few days after that, this is what we ended up with,

Above is the aftermath of the snow storm, belowis what was going on during it.  most of our windows were coated with the snow

We have had several more storms since, but I haven't taken pictures in all of them. 

Last October before the first hard frost, I was invited to pick apples from one of Farmguy's cousins.  They are yummy apples, and I canned several varieties of apple butter, and made apple sauce, and made some fried apples, and baked several types of desserts.  One of the ones we really like is Apkple Bread Pudding

it is an old recipe from my grandmother and like many recipes from nearly 100 yrs ago, it is not exact, 

3-4 slices of bread                                    - I used 8 cups of dried bread cubes

moisten with about 1 cup milk                 - I used about 3 C milk

1 - 2 C cut up apples                                 - I used a good 6 C of cut up apples

1/2 - 3/4 C sugar depending on tartness    - I used about 1 1/2C sugar & some cinnamon & nutmeg

Dot top with butter                                    - I used about 8 tbls of butter

Bake at 350 till apples are done.  Serve warm with heavy cream (G & G milked cows) or ice cream

I did some bread baking before Christmas, both Sourdough and Julekage. 

This is about half of what i made. Some for us, some for neighbors, some for friends

 I did do some Tatting before Christmas, it is about 2" tall

This post is getting long enough and late enough in the evening.  I will end 2019 here and try to get the rest caught up in the next day or so. 

Have a really great 2020

Vestment help ~ Sourdough update ~ other stuff

Our priest has asked me to see if I can mend this vestment.

 

He received it second hand while he was in the seminary. He thinks it is 65yrs old or maybe more - older then Father by more then a couple decades.
He wore it for his first Mass and for special occasions since.

Here are the labels from  inside

I did some internet searching and found the Dr Oidtmann studios associated with stained glass, and the Hubert Gotzes Art Weavery is now a museum in Krefeld Germany.

The other label inside.

 There are several areas that need mending, or maybe re-weaving, which is beyond my expertise.

The warp threads are disintigrating

More damaged warp threads

Damaged gold weft

 If anyone has any information about this vestment, or how to mend it both Father and I would be appreciative.

Taco John's breakfasts.... 
In a previous post I mentioned that both my husband and I won $5.00 Taco John's breakfast certificates by answering trivia questions on our local radio station at 6:40 in the mornings.
We were able to use them last week.  I had 2 small breakfast burritos, scrambled egg with either sausage or bacon accompanied by some potato oles and a bottle of orange juice.  Farmguy had a scrambled egg plate that started with a layer of potato oles, then scrambled eggs, some sausage or bacon (your choice) shredded cheese, tomatoes and peppers.  They were good, but not something we would like to eat every day,  there was more spice heat than we normally eat in for breakfast.

Sourdough stater....
I have now been using the Sourdough starter for several weeks.  I am not using it exclusively for all our bread but maybe every other loaf. 
For storage, it is suggested that you use non-reactive materials, so I am using glass.

This is a large quart & a half jar that used to contain Kraft Miracle whip back in the days when they used glass jars, it fits a wide mouth canning lid.
The lid is an antique glass lid from back when they started to use 2 piece canning lids, this would have been used with a rubber sealing ring and the screw band would have probably been zinc, as I have some of them. 

I have made biscuits and pancakes as well. It makes a good bread, and the biscuits and pancakes were very good. 

 You can see that the biscuits have a nice break to them and the bread has a good crumb and texture.

 Another view of the bread

It isn't hard to deal with, just a bit different and you need to plan ahead a bit more.
I have made sourdough bread both by hand and in the bread machine, using the french bread setting on the machine.  It works pretty good.  The bread is moister, and doesn't dry out as easily as regular bread.

Long past time for bed at a quarter to 12 midnight, so will show my tatting in another post, as this is really long enough.  I have been tatting.  lots off snowflakes  I can now show and I am participating in the TIAS.

Have a good night, and maybe I will be able to post again tomorrow night.

P.S. by the way, our night time temps have been in the -20 F s  Yesterday's high was -5F and today we got up to a balmy 5 above.  Yeah for North Dakota in January.

A new step

My Grandmother taught me to make bread when I was about 10, or maybe 8.  So I have been baking bread for almost 50 yrs.
Back in the 80's & 90's, when all the kids were home, I baked 8~ 1.5lb loaves of bread a week, or 6 loaves and 2doz hamburger buns.  Did it all by hand too until the mid to late 80's when I got a KitchenAid mixer.  Wow, was that a big help.

Now with only the 2 of us at home, I bake a couple loaves a week in the bread machine.  It does an o.k. job and I have tweaked the recipe I use.

The pans I used were the long pan size, 12.5"X4.5" that hold 1.5lbs of bread.









My bread recipe has always been evolving.  I am constantly adding various different flours.  I use Dakota Maid Bread Flour milled by our North Dakota State Mill & Elevator in Grand Forks ND. (and aside....We are the only state in the US with our own state owned business and our own state owned bank, going back to the 1930's depression days).  It is very good bread flour and you can purchase it here . 

I also add whole wheat flour made from hard white wheat instead of the more common hard red.  It has a softer flavor.  My husband dislikes whole wheat bread because of the strong flavor, but has no complaint about my using some white whole wheat in my bread.  The flour is milled at Horizon milling in the town of Fairmont ND just down the road about 30 miles from me.  It is available in my local grocery store, but I can not find an online source for it.  You can find other White Whole Wheat flour at King Arthur Flour or at Bob's Red Mill and likely other places as well.

I have also added specialty flours, Amaranth, Quinoa, Kamut, Spelt, Teff, Triticale, Potato, and some others. some worked better then others, some not so much. You can find specialty flours at both of the companies above.  Right now I am using both the Ancient Grains mix and the 9 grain flour from King Arthur Flour.  Not at the same time, but trying the different mixes in about a 1-3 proportion to the regular bread flour. So a 4 C flour mix would be 2 C bread flour, 1 C white whole wheat & 1C grain mix flour, with a couple Tbsp's of Potato that I always add because Potato helps to hold moisture so the bread doesn't dry out so quickly.

Another thing I use is Bakers Dry Milk from KAF.  It has been specially processed to kill the enzyme in milk that interferes with yeast. That is why you should always scald milk before using it in your bread.  By using the Bakers Dry milk you don't have to scald the milk, and wait for it to cool.

Why all this buildup?  Because I have decided to embark on a new adventure, Sourdough.

The entire experience that I have had with starters is the Friendship bread you might have received from a so-called friend at some point in time.  That was not a good experience, I didn't have enough neighbors to be constantly giving starter or bread away, nor did I like throwing away the excess starter, though the chickens did enjoy it,  and we could only eat so much of that quick bread.

I received my Sourdough starter today, ordered it from KAF . 

It has been fed and is sitting and working as we speak. Hopefully it will be ready to be fed again tomorrow morning. 

Oh, do you want to know my recipe?
C = Cup
T = Tablespoon
tsp = Teaspoon
This makes 2 loaves in the long pans, or 2 doz hamburger buns.
1/4C  butter
1/4C  sugar
2 1/4tsp salt
2C boiling water poured over the above, stir to melt the butter, and dissolve the sugar and salt, let cool to lukewarm
1/4 C dry milk
1 1/2T yeast
6C flour +/- depending on your weather
mix, knead, let rise, punch down and shape loaves, let rise, bake at 375 for 35 min or until instant read thermometer registers 190 degrees.